Youth unemployment as a policy problem for the OECD, European Union, and the Republic of Ireland in the wake of the Global Financial Crisis

This article takes the advent of the 2013 European Youth Guarantee to comparatively explore how youth unemployment was represented as a problem by the EU, OECD, and Irish government. The Republic of Ireland represents a salient case study in which to examine this policy initiative's impact due to its unique institutional features and strong youth employment outcomes prior to the economic downturn–setting it apart from other crisis-stricken EU member states. Our multi-level discourse analysis finds a ‘supply-side’ representation of the problem of youth unemployment, with variance between the OECD and EU occurring primarily in terms of emphasis and terminology. At the Irish level, we identify a behaviouralist problematisation, paralleling stigmatising framings in public discourse of the young-unemployed as idle and deviant, and marginalisation of concerns raised by OECD and EU texts. Our findings suggest that Irish policymakers reproduced pre-existing policy preferences and prioritised austerity goals over ambitious new policy ventures.